Joel and Marie returned from Minnesota last night. They were gone for 5 days and I missed them something fierce. Joel was kind enough to take lots of photos for me. They visited the Nature Center, got to see a combine cut hay and a baler bale it, climbed on said bales of hay, celebrated Ralph's 60th birthday and Ada's 1st birthday, played in an all-day church softball tournament (which they won), went to church with Aunt Heidi and Uncle Chad, played with cousins, ate donuts, played kickball/golf/tennis/cards/Pictionairy (which Joel tells me was hilarious), and who knows what else! We're talking about the Meehans here. They. Don't. Stop. But they're a lot of fun, and do manage to squeeze in some meaningful conversation between activities!


On Wednesday evening, before the rest of the family arrived, Barb/Ralph/Joel/Marie all went to the Nature Center by their house. Ralph volunteers there, and they have some really pretty walking trails, too.







Ending a long day of travel w/a story courtesy of Grandma Barb.




Marie got to see the combine cut the hay and the baler bale it, which she thought was pretty cool. On Friday while they were watching the Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastics ribbon baton twirling, Ralph mentioned how he thought he could move one of the bales of hay. Dan bet him that he couldn't. Well, Dan lost that bet and had to perform a 1.5 minute long rhythmic baton twirling routine. Barb made the baton w/a ribbon and a paper towel roll. Seriously, did nobody video-tape this? Anyway, here are some photos of the bales...


Tim and Isaac




Cousins playing:



Playing Lincoln Logs w/Uncle Chad. That's quite the masterpiece!





Ada is 1!!!




Tim with his three kiddos (and one more on-the-way!) Our neices and nephew are adorable. Isaac is 4 1/2, Naomi is 2 1/2 and Ada is 1 now. Baby #4 due in April!




And, on a side note, my home state of Nebraska just passed a new law making it legal to abandon your children at any hospital, no questions asked, up to the age of 19. Many states have similar laws allowing you to abandon a newborn up to 72 hours after their birth with no penalty, but this is a bit different (I'd say!). You have a rough day with an unruly teenager and you go and drop them off with no penalty to be custody of the state. The point is to prevent parents from doing something irrational, I suppose. I probably wouldn't have lived at my parents house much past the age of 14 if this had been a law when I was in middle school/high school.

On another side note, the girls and I will be traveling to Nebraska next month. Hmmm...interesting.... Haha.

Here's the link to the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26353351/?GT1=43001